Michael Waas
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- Business Name
- Hollander-Waas Jewish Heritage Services
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- Non-Research Specialties
- Author/Writer
- Historian
- Lecturer/Presenter - On-site
- Oral Historian/Interviewer
- Photographer
- Transcriber
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- Research Specialties
- Archaeology (old artifacts)
- Court Records
- DNA Specialist
- Hispanic
- Historical Sites
- Holocaust
- Jewish
- Paleography (ancient/historical handwriting)
- Rabbinic Judaism
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- Research Countries
- Austria
- Belarus
- Czech Republic
- England
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Israel
- Italy
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Netherlands
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Spain
- Turkey
- Ukraine
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- Research Time Periods
- 16th Century
- 17th Century
- 18th Century
- 19th Century
- 20th Century
Michael is a Heritage Professional, based in Israel, specializing in historic preservation and multidisciplinary research into the Sephardi Jews, especially the Portuguese Sephardic Jewish community, and Ottoman Jewry (Sephardim and Romaniote primarily). Michael also works in genealogies of Ashkenazi Jews. He received his Bachelors Degree in Anthropology with a specialization in Historical Archaeology from New College of Florida, and the subject of his Senior Thesis was "The Archaeology of Ethnogenesis of the Seminole People of Florida, " under the direction of Dr. Uzi Baram. Michael recently completed his Masters Degree in the Department of Jewish History at the University of Haifa under the direction of Dr. Ido Shahar and Dr. Shai Srugo. The title of his thesis was Istorya i oy: A comparative study on the Development of Jewish Heritage of Three Jewish Communities of the former Ottoman Empire. In addition, he has been volunteering with AvotaynuDNA since 2016, where he is the anthropologist and historian of the research. Michael plans to pursue his PhD in the near future.
With his business partner, Caitlin Hollander, he co-founded Hollander-Waas Jewish Heritage services, a full-service genealogy and family history firm. Hollander-Waas specializes in Jewish genealogy, with special expertise in citizenship reclamation, Sephardic and Ashkenazi heritage, DNA test interpretation and evaluation, Holocaust records and documentation, and emigration and citizenship, and provides a customized full-service heritage preservation and genealogy service.
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- Degrees
- MA (University of Haifa) (Jewish History), BA (New College of Florida) (Liberal Arts; Anthropology; Archaeology)
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- Languages
- English, Hebrew, Portuguese, Spanish, some Dutch, some French, limited Greek, limited Ottoman Turkish
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- Testimonials
- Michael’s knowledge is vast, he has helped me for years with Sephardic genealogical research and in navigating the many archives in Holland, Israel, Turkey and the UK. He has a impressive understanding of the relationships between different families, professional networks and historical push and pull factors to help give grounding to each piece of information found. Further, his knowledge of many languages allows him to parse through many documents with a speed that is otherwise impossible for others due to lack of translation and indexing. Highly recommended.
- J. Bliss
Michael Waas has demonstrated over many cases how a multidisciplinary approach of genealogy could unveil one’s personal history. With his deep historical knowledge, his understanding of genetics and his capability to analyze archives in multiple languages, he is able to bring together the pieces of your heritage’s puzzle. Michael Waas applies scientific thinking to your case, and yet ends up telling you nice stories about yourself.
- N. Farouz
Michael helped me find information about my great-grandmother, who I knew had fled Russia from the pogroms, but I knew little else. My great-grandmother passed away when I was 8, before I knew to ask about the past. He was able to help find out exactly where she was from, which meant a lot to me and to my grandmother. I was amazed at how fast he was able to find out the information, too!
- D. Korngold
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- Lectures
- July 2023 In the Lands of Osman: Jewish Genealogy in the Former Ottoman Empire. The
International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies [IAJGS] Conference,
London.
July 2023 Sephardim in Eastern Europe? Panel with David Mendoza, Randol Schoenberg,
and Ton Tielen. IAJGS Conference, London.
July 2023 The Migrations of Portuguese Jews. Panel with Adam Brown and David Mendoza.
IAJGS Conference, London.
Jun 2019 From Tudesco to Portuguese: A case study on the Waas-Levie (Vaz Lopes) of Amsterdam. The Ninth Annual Conference of the Society for Sephardic Studies: Sephardi Jews between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, conference, Lisbon.
Jun 2019 The Strangers Amongst You: Iberia, Fluidity of Identity, and the Entry of Non-Levantine Genetic Ancestors into the Jewish People. Terras de Sefarad, conference, Braganca.
Oct 2018 Haplogroup J-Z640 - Genetic Insight into the Levantine Bronze Age. Third International Conference on Genomics History, Medicine and Society, Haifa
Jun 2018 The Forgotten Portuguese Diaspora: The Ma aminim (The Doenme of Salonika and the Ottoman Balkans). Jews of Portugal and the Spanish-Portuguese Jewish Diaspora, conference, Lisbon.
Jul 2017 Next-Generation YDNA Sequencing Projects: J-Z640, R-BY3314 and others. 37th annual International Conference on Jewish Genealogy. Panel with Adam Brown.
Jul 2017 DNA 301: What Y-DNA Lineages Can Tell Us About Jewish History and Migration (BigY). 37th annual International Conference on Jewish Genealogy. Panel with Rachel Unkefer, Janet Akaha, and Adam Brown
May 2017 El Muzeo Djidio: Re-imagining Jewish Identity through Heritage in Salonika during the transition from Ottoman Selanik to Greek Thessaloniki. Salonica: A Multicultural City in the Ottoman Empire and the Greek State, workshop, Jerusalem.
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- Publications
- 2023 “The Purchase of Slaves and a Sefer Torah, Cayenne, 1658, 1663,” in Jews Across
the Americas, Adriana M. Brodsky and Laura Arnold Leibman, eds, pp. 49-51.
New York: New York University Press.
2023 The Surprising Origins of the Coryell Family of Colonial New Jersey. American
Ancestors 23(4):27:31. Co-written with Lea Coryell and Adam Brown
2019 Haplogroup J-Z640-Genetic Insight into the Levantine Bronze Age. Journal of Phylogenetics & Evolutionary Biology, 7(1): 209. 10.4172/2329-9002.1000209
2018 The Port Khan of Akko: Abu Christ, between Heritage and History. Society for Historical Archaeology: The SHA Newsletter 51(4):25-28. See: http://www.sha.org
Contact
- Business site: hollander-waas.com
Work Contact
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| Email: | michael@hollander-waas.com |
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| State/Province: | New York |
| Country: | United States |
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